Following reports of AMD's next flagship GPU, the RV790 being pushed to April, a fresh report from Hardware-Infos suggests that its sibling, the RV740 will join the league of the company's product launches slated for April. Company sources tell Hardware-Infos that the company has no product-launches scheduled for the upcoming CeBIT event held in Germany. The report suggests constraints of TSMC, a major foundry partner for AMD's graphics product group (GPG), with regards to its 40 nm bulk manufacturing process, as a likely cause although this bit wasn't endorsed by the source.

Another source shed some light on the specifications of the two graphics processors. It is suggested that the RV790 has expanded machinery at its disposal, with 960 stream processors and 48 texture memory units. Engineering samples based on the said GPU are known to carry faster memory chips. The specifications coupled with the suggested higher clock speeds of 850/975 MHz (core/memory) help explain how the RV790 could manage to pose competition to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 accelerator. The RV740 on the other hand, is said to carry 640 stream processors, 32 texture memory units, and a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface.

RV740 seems very interesting. It should match the HD4830, but at a significant cost reduction. I like the looks of that.

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I agree. I am as interested in what these companies can do at the mid/low end of things as the no-holds-barred high end. AMD/ATI are very serious about both areas, moreso than NV apparently with that sad 9500GT crap.

If those specs are right for RV790, GTX 285 is going to be in for some big hurt. Maybe I'll finally have something that's worthy of replacing the 'ol 8800GTX in the main game rig. I like to upgrade when it's guaranteed to be an eye opener.

I agree. I am as interested in what these companies can do at the mid/low end of things as the no-holds-barred high end. AMD/ATI are very serious about both areas, moreso than NV apparently with that sad 9500GT crap.

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NVidia's offerings in the mid-range are nice. The new cheaper, more energy efficient 9600GT walks on the HD4670. The current 9600GT offers about 10% better performance, at the same $70 price point. The new 9600GT should give the same performance benefit, at an even cheaper price.

And in the low end segment, the 9500GT gives pretty much double the performance of the HD4550 at the same $45 price point.

Obviously prices vary greatly from place to place, but in terms of performance nVidia seems to be putting out some pretty decent cards in the mid and low ranges.

Still 16 ROP's? Or not? I mean, they keep raising the shader/stream unit count but that's not where AMD GPU's are bottlenecked. 16 ROP's is where R4xx series started back in 2004. But, then again I understand it. Even if the global economic problems weren't as serious (and they are) AMD was in serious financial troubles even before all this stuff started and all they can do at this point is tweak their architecture in most cost effective ways. ROP partitions take up plenty of die space which means a massive transistor count bump and AMD can't afford that. Also, a bump in the ROP area would increase the already dangerous thermal profiles of AMD's high-end GPU's and they would have to charge an arm and a leg to justify production.

Still 16 ROP's? Or not? I mean, they keep raising the shader/stream unit count but that's not where AMD GPU's are bottlenecked. 16 ROP's is where R4xx series started back in 2004. But, then again I understand it. Even if the global economic problems weren't as serious (and they are) AMD was in serious financial troubles even before all this stuff started and all they can do at this point is tweak their architecture in most cost effective ways. ROP partitions take up plenty of die space which means a massive transistor count bump and AMD can't afford that. Also, a bump in the ROP area would increase the already dangerous thermal profiles of AMD's high-end GPU's and they would have to charge an arm and a leg to justify production.